HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani at the ceremony.

AFP, QNA/Doha

Qatar signed the first contracts on a mega-accommodation project on Thursday which will eventually see almost 180,000 migrant workers housed in seven specially built "cities".

All seven sites could be in operation within two years, said officials at a ceremony in Doha attended by HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.

"The whole project will be completed by the end of 2017," said Jamal Shareeda al-Kaabi, a director of the Central Planning Office, which oversees major infrastructure projects.

The project, spread over 6mn square metres, will be implemented in three phases and located at Umm Salal Mohammed, Birkat Al Awamer, Umm Ghuwailina, Al Wakrah and Al Shamal.

The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning's Undersecretary for Public Services, HE Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani, represented the ministry in signing the contracts.

Jassim bin Abdullah al-Misnad signed on behalf of Shaqab Abela Catering Services, Nabil Bu Issa on behalf of Gulf Systems for Contracting and Services, and Saif ur Rehman Khan on behalf of Redco International Trading and Contracting.

The sites are being built in addition to the $825mn Labour City, a vast housing complex on the fringes of the capital with space for almost 70,000 workers, which opened earlier this year.

Many of the labourers who will be housed on the sites will be working on infrastructure projects directly or indirectly related to the 2022 World Cup.

Earlier in the year, HE the Labour Minister Abdullah Saleh Mubarak al-Khulaifi described the huge-scale new housing complexes as "cities" and told AFP they were the "future" for worker accommodation in Qatar.

The contracts signed on Thursday are between government officials and members of the private sector for the first accommodation centre, which will be located in Umm Salal Mohammed, north of Doha.

Umm Salal will house around 24,000 workers.

'Public-private partnerships'

All seven "cities" will be built through "public-private partnerships".

The final cost of building all the accommodation centres is not known but the government has put in QR1.6bn "for the provision of infrastructure", according to a government factsheet.

The cities will be built across Qatar, from the fringes of the capital Doha to one in the north.

They incorporate facilities such as cafeterias, television rooms, gyms, mosques and other religious centres.

Many of the workers who will end up living in the new centres will be transferred from other accommodation complexes in Qatar.

The aim, said al-Kaabi, is to place labourers closer to their place of work as well as to improve accommodation standards.

"We have developed a strategy depending on demand forecast," he added.

"Basically we're trying to facilitate a proper housing accommodation that meets the standards and requirements of the state with the best practice."

There are around 1.8mn migrant workers in Qatar but that will reach almost 2.5mn two years before the World Cup, officials have said.

Qatar this week celebrated the fifth anniversary of being chosen to host football's biggest tournament.